Question About the Change Over from Vista to Windows 7

[Ro_Laren]

I know that if you buy a new PC right now you are supposed to get Windows 7 for free once it is released in the Fall. Now I have a stupid question about that. I am assuming they will either mail you a disc(s) with Windows 7 on it or you can download it from Microsoft's web-site. Now when you load the new operating system onto our PC do all the Vista files disappear or will some be left behind?? I am only asking this because I am questioning the performance of a computer that has had two operating systems on it at different times. Will the computer be slower??? I always heard that Vista is a resource hog and the thought of downloading a new operating system onto the computer scares me. I have to buy a PC for school and don't want it to be super slow!!

 

[Drogo]

Just put the 7 disc in the machine and replace Vista. Every thing will be fine.

 

[Ro_Laren]

^ Are you just guessing?

 

[Drogo]

^ Are you just guessing?

No

There will not be two operating systems. Just 7.

 

[Ro_Laren]

^ Well yes I understand that there will not be two operating systems running on the computer at the same time. I am just wondering if some leftover Vista files or something will be on my computer & thus cause to be slower. Like some sort of file that can never be completely erased. Or if there would be some other reason that the computer will be slower because it once had Vista on it.

By the way everyone, I went to the web-site for Windows 7 and apparently only some laptops qualify for a free upgrade:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/buy/featured-pcs.aspx

 

[Drogo]

^ Well yes I understand that there will not be two operating systems running on the computer at the same time. I am just wondering if some leftover Vista files or something will be on my computer & thus cause to be slower. Like some sort of file that can never be completely erased. Or if there would be some other reason that the computer will be slower because it once had Vista on it.

Then do not up grade, or go buy the "200 dollar" version of 7 which is used for machines that never had any version of Windows installed. It does a complete wipe of the hard drive and installs the "virgin" version of 7.

It's an either or situation. It's not rocket scienc.

 

[TheGodBen]

My understanding of the XP-to-Vista upgrade disc was that you could either choose an upgrade installation or a clean installation, the same will probably be true of the Vista-to-7 upgrade disc.

If you choose to upgrade rather than do a clean installation then all your files and applications should still work as they were in Vista, but it makes things more complicated in the registry and as a result it runs a little slower. Although the upgrade from Vista to 7 is not going to be as extreme as it was from XP to Vista so that might not be much of an issue this time around. If you choose to do the clean installation then you'll need to reinstall your programs and files, but the PC will probably be better off for it.

I've not done the upgrade from Vista to 7 though, I did a clean install with the beta and RC, so it might work fine this time around.

 

[Luckyflux]

^ Well yes I understand that there will not be two operating systems running on the computer at the same time. I am just wondering if some leftover Vista files or something will be on my computer & thus cause to be slower. Like some sort of file that can never be completely erased. Or if there would be some other reason that the computer will be slower because it once had Vista on it.

By the way everyone, I went to the web-site for Windows 7 and apparently only some laptops qualify for a free upgrade:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/buy/featured-pcs.aspx

You don't need to worry about the leftover Vista files. Yes some will still be there and the registry will have some lost key and extraneous info, but you won't notice the loss from that. There are free registry cleaners and other programs that will do a clean delete and stuff like that, but the gain is minimal. The biggest memory hogs will be taken care of with the upgrade, the little stuff is too little to matter.

If you are going to upgrade then I would just back up all the important stuff on a thumb drive, and upgrade for free. The data is the most important thing.

 

[TheBrew]

Yeah, always buckup the important stuff before any major hardware/software change.

 

[C. Cole-Chakotay]

I'm going to be getting Windows 7 and am considering dual-booting it with Vista. Either that, or a clean installation. I'm researching the issue right now.

 

[Kirk's_Tights]

Well, this is computer related so I'll just slip it in here (lololololol) but I have Vista and recently downloaded EI8 (or whatever the newest one is, but I think it was 8) and it's utterly retarded. In my main search box, it doesn't save anything. For example, if I went to yahoo and google, I could just hit the downwards arrow and both links would come up in the drop box but I can't do it anymore and I have to always type in yahoo, google, etc.

I tried to see if any configs were changed in my settings and none have been changed so I don't know why it does this or if it's what comes with this version of IE....I had Mozilla but I removed it because it was slow to open.

 

[BigFoot]

^ If Firefox was slow for you, give Chrome a try.

 

[Brent]

Always a good idea to do a clean OS install (not upgrade) when using Microsoft OS's in my experience. Yes, an upgrade can be done, but I personally prefer a clean install to a new OS like Win7. That is my opinion.

Now, you can of course do an upgrade, and it will probably work fine.

 

[Deks]

Upgrading is optional of course ... but I personally never bothered with it, primarily due to the fact I wanted a clean installation of the OS I was using from the get go.
Simple as that.

My personal suggestion: backup your important files, format the partition where Vista is, and install Win 7.

 

[Yoda]

Well, this is computer related so I'll just slip it in here (lololololol) but I have Vista and recently downloaded EI8 (or whatever the newest one is, but I think it was 8) and it's utterly retarded. In my main search box, it doesn't save anything. For example, if I went to yahoo and google, I could just hit the downwards arrow and both links would come up in the drop box but I can't do it anymore and I have to always type in yahoo, google, etc.

I tried to see if any configs were changed in my settings and none have been changed so I don't know why it does this or if it's what comes with this version of IE....I had Mozilla but I removed it because it was slow to open.

My IE8 works pretty normally. I think the relevant settings are in Tools->Options->Content->Autocomplete, other than that, don't know what to tell you.

 

[Small White Car]

^ Are you just guessing?

Well, he probably hasn't upgraded to Windows 7, so in that sense it's a guess.

However, what you are suggesting is something that hasn't happened for the last 25 years of home computing, so I'd say that it's a good bet it's not going to suddenly start working that way now.

So it's a good guess is what I'm saying.

EDIT: This chart will be useful for anyone upgrading. You want to fall in a green square if you want things to be easy.